Our Cape San Blas Vacation, October 2008

We started our vacation by spending some time in the Chicago area. We actually stayed close to a small town called Ottawa, which we found amusing since we live in Ottawa Canada. We didn't know we were going to stay near Ottawa, Illinois before we got there. We just went into the nearest town for breakfast the first day and discovered we were in Ottawa. We told the waitress in the diner that we were from Ottawa, Canada and we gave her the front section from the Ottawa Citizen. She said they were going to post the front page on their wall.

We had a really good time in Chicago. We took an architecture boat cruise, visited the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. All were excellent! We walked quite a bit and really enjoyed Navy Pier and Millennium Park.

After leaving Chicago we stopped for a night in Memphis Tennessee. We visited with people who had stayed at Dolphins Dance a couple of times and went out to dinner with them. It was really great to meet Saul and Betsy for the first time. They were quite interested in the Presidential campaign and it was really fun talking to them and getting their insights and opinions on the American political scene.

The next day we went on to Cape San Blas. It was so wonderful to be back! The beach was even better than the year before as they had just finished a beach renourishment.

Hemmie sitting on the Cape San Blas beach at sunset. Who says cats don't enjoy the beach as much as dogs?!

We spent three weeks on Cape San Blas and the weather was absolutely perfect. Just about every day was sunny but not too hot. There were butterflies everywhere! We took Hemmie, our 15 year old cat, down to the beach. She sat on a beach chair and actually seemed to enjoy herself! She met a dog close up and we all enjoyed the amazing sunset together.

Hemlock, our old Saimese cat on the Cape San Blas beach. She loved sitting on the beach chair and was not afraid of the surf.

Hemlock meets a dog on the Cape San Blas beach. Surprisingly the dog and cat were just curious about each other.

One day we went shopping at Panama City. We had a lot of stuff to get for Dolphins Dance. We got new beach chairs and an umbrella, nice big beach towels, a large size pet/baby gate and even a fancy shaving/make-up mirror for the master bedroom, amongst other things.

The downstairs covered deck at Dolphins Dance. This deck overlooks the lake and is a great place to relax and enjoy the wildlife and listen to the fountain in the lake.

Before shopping though, we took in the powerboat racing at the Panama City beach. It was awesome! Those boats really move! I hope they do that again in 2009!

One of the many turtles in the lake just off the back deck at Dolphins Dance. They love bread and will come right out of the water for a treat. Great fun for kids of all ages!

The three weeks of sun and surf just flew by and soon it was time to leave Cape San Blas. We spent many days on the beach and met many dogs and their people. We really didn't want to go! We knew we were returning to the onset of winter, and we would much rather have spent it on Cape San Blas!

Green Heron just off the back deck at Dolphins Dance. The lake is a great place to view birds and other wildlife while enjoying a cup of coffee.

This was our final sunset on Cape San Blas for 2008. A superb end to a super beach vacation in Florida!

We decided to do the trip in two days. The first day went well and we spent the night in Louisville, Kentucky. The next day, a Sunday (naturally we had left Cape San Blas at the last possible minute), Tom woke up in the middle of the night with a very sore knee. It looked like something had bitten him. Throughout the day it got worse and worse - very painful and swollen. We ran into some traffic problems in New York State and we had to take frequent breaks, but we made it home late Sunday night. On Monday Tom went to his doctor and on Tuesday he was in the hospital getting intravenous antibiotics. We think he was bitten by a brown recluse spider when we stopped for a break near Nashville, Tennessee. We had sat at a roadside picnic table and Tom was wearing shorts and he probably got bit then. Turns out the spider bite wasn't really the problem, but the infection was. Tom had to be on IV antibiotics for about two weeks. He got hooked up to this portable machine that pumped in antibiotics three times per day. It would take about an hour each time and it sounded like one of those doors on Star Trek opening every few seconds. If there was a problem, like the hose being kinked or whatever, the machine would make a loud beeping noise. It did this the first night and scared me half to death. I spent the rest of the nights Tom had this machine sleeping in a different room.

Tom and I are both looking forward to our trip this fall to Cape San Blas. Hemmie is still with us although her health is not good. We'll try to avoid spiders though!

Hemmie has decided enough sand and surf on the beach - it's time to head back to Dolphins Dance for supper!

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